World Cup 83: Retrospective
For World Cup 100, Flavovespia Football Daily will look back at the previous 17 cycles for Flavovespia. There were plenty of highs and lows to explore, and with the centennial World Cup upon us, now is a good time to explore how Flavovespia got there. From the first match vs Ko-oren, to opponents like The Appraisal To The Allmighty MR TAYTO, all the way to a World Cup final, coming up is the World Cup journey of Flavovespia.
The beginning for Flavovespia, World Cup Qualifiers 83. Into international football they went, under the guidance of then 42 year old Nick Cole. A successful club manager at Waldster FC, he was tasked with building a Flavovespia squad for their debut in the world stage. More than 25 years on, and his squad contains plenty of names who’d be stars of the early years of Flavovespia’s international journey, like Steven Hall, Scott Coleman and James King, but a fair few names who were less than memorable.
The journey for Flavovespia began in Ko-oren. In some ways there’s a beautiful poetry to the fact that, a debut game for Flavovespia would be against an opponent who have been a big part of Flavovespia’s footballing history. A 2-1 win it was to Ko-oren, an 83rd minute goal given them a win that was deserved, all things said, but Flavovespia were now on the world stage. They blew a 4-2 lead to lose 4-6 in their home debut vs Torisakia, and followed with draws to Dremaplanet and Freeport. Alexander Mason would score the goal in Western Bjornaic to give Flavovespia a 1-2 win, their first ever in international football. Then, Flavovespia pulled off a shock 1-1 draw against world #3 Eura, an 88th minute strike by Steven Hall one of many memorable goals he’d score.
Flavovespia battled on in the second half of qualifying, keen to get more wins. However, just one more would come, a 5-1 thrashing of Western Bjornaic, who’d finish with just 1 point. Flavovespia finished their inaugural qualifying campaign on 12 points in 12 games. Second bottom, but a plucky display for the debutants. Tough to take though was just 2 wins, both against a side who were winless. An invite to the Cup of Harmony 75 would come.
Cup of Harmony 75 would however prove to be a tournament Flavovespia left completely empty handed. Debutants, and outsiders, they would lose every single game and score just 2 goals. It was a tough group, including eventual winners Main Nation Ministry, but all in all, a tournament to forget. Was the criticism of that tournament fair? Possibly, it was a tough group, and much like the Qualifiers, some games saw Flavovespia concede late goals, a sign of the struggles to get up to speed with the intensity of international football. However there were some players who remained rather anonymous or had poor tournaments, Neil Wright in defence, Jordaan Wolfson in midfield, Thomas McDonald in attack for example. The latter, a 34 year old call up with 3 caps and 1 goal in total, remains one of the most obscure Flavovespian internationals.
A cycle that started with a flourish, as the dawn of Flavovespian international football began, the latter stages and inaugural tournament petered out. Despite the results, it was clear to see Steven Hall was the right choice as captain. James King also starred in midfield, and of the younger players to debut, Scott Coleman and Tony Gardner showed that they were here to be names for the future. Conor Harrington and John Calvert had their brief international careers in this cycle, but both made a positive contribution to the cause, players who’d certainly get many more caps if Flavovespia had entered international football earlier.
